Field Guide to Superheroes Vol. 3 (ICONS)

The Field Guide Vol. 3 continues the definitive encyclopedia of superhero archetypes in modern comics.

Written by Jason "Dr. Comics" Tondro, who studied comics for his PhD in Literature, the Field Guide is a gold mine of ideas and inspiration for your next hero. After a discussion of each archetype generally, the Field Guide then gives a fully fleshed out hero, suitable for immediate use as a PC or important NPC in your ICONS campaign.

Rather than break archetypes down by power set, the Field Guide looks at the character's origin and role in the story. This makes the archetypes much more versatile and puts the emphasis on character, rather than power.Archetypes detailed in part 3 include:

The Magician: caretaker of secrets man was not meant to know.

The Man of Tomorrow: the future embodied in the present. The Man of Tomorrow is heir to two worlds, at home in none.

The Master of the Atom: dangerous, feared by others, this character wields a power as dangerous as it is difficult to control.

The Master of the Elements: master of one element or many, nature itself is this archetype's weapon.

The Master of the Martial Arts: his body is the ultimate weapon. This character has traveled the world and learned the secrets contained in the human mind, spirit and body.

Minority Hero: a hero to all, the Minority Hero also wrestles with issues related to his ethnicity.

Monstrous Hero: a monster who tries to help others despite the hideous appearance that makes everyone fear and misunderstand him.

Mythic Hero: a character of legend, this hero has either survived from antiquity or been reborn in the modern age.

Occult Hero: a hero who taps a diabolical power and uses it to do good.

Psychic Hero: this archetype taps the limitless potential of the human brain to combat the forces of evil.

The Field Guide series contains material that may not be appropriate for younger readers. Parental discretion is advised when buying the material for young adults under the age of 14.

I gave a negative review of this series. I have come to regret this choice the more I reviewed this product. I now feel I should update my conclusions and try to be a more informative reviewer for my readers and not vent my financial venom into the RPG [...]

Like Vols. 1 and 2 of this series, Vol. 3 presents ten superhero archetypes. For each archetype, author Jason Tondro provides an overview of the archetype and advice for modeling that type of hero in ICONS. An example character demonstrates each archet [...]

A hefty collection of archetypes for the ICONS game. Lots of familiar territory here with some standard comic book archetypes. What I came here for was the Magician, Occult hero and the Psychic. In all cases an archetype is presented with some [...]

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